Dark Souls(Demon's Souls successor)

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One other general thing relevant to gear, i believe there's actually two thresholds in the encumbrance system, one of which is invisible. If your encumbrance is below half of your total, you're a fast character. You can sprint while locked-on, you dodge faster and move faster, i think you even regain stamina faster. That invisible threshold there is what you want to aim for if you want to be fast, equip the best gear you can without going over that. If you're going for a heavy build, just wear the best stuff you can without hitting the limit on your stat sheet. (Raising your endurance raises your encumbrance limit.)

There are actually three encumbrance states. One is the obvious overencumbrance that stops you being able to run at all and so on, then there's below 50%, which you mentioned, but if you actually manage to get below 25% you get even faster.

I quite like my knight character, but I've gotten so some sections now where I'm not doing too well, and though I can probably push through I'm thinking I might make a pyromancer or sorcerer to see how I feel about those before I commit too heavily to my initial character.

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I put a few hours in last night, so much to say! I started as a thief character with black firebombs as my starting option (which I'm slightly regretting as I instantly threw the majority at walls mistaking the use button for attack while figuring the controls out. The heal spell would have been more useful). I'm light and fast so my tactics involve dodging around and stabbing everyone in the arse repeatedly with a dagger. If that fails, I run.

I managed to reach the Taurus Demon. I said a quick hello and was promptly splatted. I also ran into a knight holding what appears to be a 12 foot stone dildo and was promptly splatted again. Thankfully the screen faded to black there. While trying to retrieve those souls I then discovered a Black Knight (possibly the same one Gwardinen is talking about, down some small narrow stairs?) who proceeded to chase me all the way back to the starting area before tearing me apart. I haven't gone back there yet, I'm not ready for that!

So now I'm having fun collecting enough souls for a miracle that'll be helpful and generally levelling up a bit before tackling the Taurus again. I guess it's grinding but it doesn't feel like it. Practising is probably a better word here. I've gotten comfortable with the combat now but I still get caught out by the easier chaps on occasion.

With regards to equipment, I've found a bunch of stuff in the world and at a merchant but nothing that betters my starting thief blade and small shield. They just work better with my skills. At one point I tried to drag a Hollow Shield around but I'm too weak for such things. I'm hoping there's some cooler stuff available for a light character later on.

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There are actually three encumbrance states. One is the obvious overencumbrance that stops you being able to run at all and so on, then there's below 50%, which you mentioned, but if you actually manage to get below 25% you get even faster.

Ah, seems you're right.

So for clarity's sake then, there would be four states of encumbrance.

Say you have an encumbrance stat of 50 - the first state is below 12.5, second state is below 25, then 50 and below, and then the over encumbered state.

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So now I'm having fun collecting enough souls for a miracle that'll be helpful and generally levelling up a bit before tackling the Taurus again. I guess it's grinding but it doesn't feel like it. Practising is probably a better word here. I've gotten comfortable with the combat now but I still get caught out by the easier chaps on occasion.

I sort of know what you mean, the experience you as a player get is almost as valuable as souls, as I'm definitely significantly better at the combat and understanding most of the enemies now than when I started.

That said, I did just lose nearly 4000 souls in an incident I don't want to talk about (it genuinely hurts that much) so I'm thoroughly depressed right now.

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I've found the easiest way to earn souls is to sit yourself down in front of a boss encounter that is centered right in the main progression path for the game, just set up a summon sign and help people through the encounter. (If you're still the appropriate level, the twin gargoyles are a good early boss to do this with. They're easy to kill and everybody has to fight them.)

Just go make a sandwich or something, read stuff on the internet, and keep a distant eye on the game. When somebody summons you, pick up the controller.

I mean, but mid-game bosses will earn you like 10-15k per go, it makes a lot more sense than slowly grinding out souls from enemies that drop only a couple hundred souls at a time. Give it a couple hours and you're running around the game world with like five humanities and over sixty thousand souls, a completely terrifying experience.

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Behind a sealed door in the Darkroot Garden is a forest area tied to a particular covenant that will summon its members to invade your game to try and prevent your progress through this location. So I got in there and started exploring and ultimately fended off three separate invasions, cleared out all the hostile NPC enemies, and defeated the area boss all in one go. Then i made it back out with nearly seventy thousand souls and leveled up four times. I could not believe that i pulled that off.

It actually looks like members of that covenant only get summoned if you're in a human state. I had previously been nosing around that area with no invasions as a hollow, and then I used my last inventory-stored humanity because i was thinking i'd go summon somebody to help me out with the boss, which is when i was hit with a whole string of invasions one after another. (Thing is, i never even saw any summon signs, so i ended up doing it all on my own.)

The things this game does with online are really, really fascinating and thrilling.

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I only had a bit of time last night so I haven't managed to accumulate enough souls for a miracle yet but I did buy a bow as I had no form of long range attack. Shortly after I found a crossbow.

I had another shot at Mr. Taurus but he's proving to be a tough cookie. I do not want to look at a wiki/guide though! I spoiled myself a couple of times on Demon's Souls and felt robbed of the experience afterwards.

I can get a hugely damaging plunging attack straight off by climbing the tower but after that I'm stuck in close combat and get nailed. My attacks do almost nothing. I have successfully dodged through his legs a few times but it seems only luck prevents me taking damage when I do that. He spins round and catches me with his hammer/club thing most times so I don't think it's a tactic I can rely on, especially for how long I'd need to keep it up! Next time I'm going to try using my speed advantage and annoyingly run away to the other tower, then back again to climb up and get the plunging attack in again. I reckon 4 of those will do it. I've not reached the other tower yet so I may be able to climb that one too. That would be nice (as long as there aren't more archers up there).

I think I've explored as many areas as I can without running into an enemy I can't get past now (Mr. T, dildo knight, black knight and a couple of annoyingly tough skeletons). The black knight seems the easiest of those yet the way he runs at me is terrifying.

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The Taurus Demon was actually a good lesson for me in the fact that the lock-on camera is a hindrance as often as it is a help. In some situations you just need to turn it off and run around like you're in Devil May Cry. Sprinting at angles from a boss, particularly if you don't have enough room to maneouvre, is not necessarily a crazy idea. In that situation, being locked in to facing them is not a good thing.

Also, yes, I can confirm that you can do the plunge more than once as long as you start climbing long enough before he gets to you. He does have a vertical attack that will hit you if you're too low on the ladder, and fair warning: don't spend too long on top of the tower.

Edit: Something that just occurred to me that it seems like the game never really explains - to kick someone you have to flick the left stick forwards just as you press the attack button, and to do a lunging attack you flick the left stick fowards as you press the heavy attack button. Just in case anyone didn't know. It's a bit tricky at first but, like backstabbing (and I presume parry + riposte, haven't trained myself into that yet), it gets easier with practice.

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The Taurus Demon was actually a good lesson for me in the fact that the lock-on camera is a hindrance as often as it is a help. In some situations you just need to turn it off and run around like you're in Devil May Cry. Sprinting at angles from a boss, particularly if you don't have enough room to maneouvre, is not necessarily a crazy idea. In that situation, being locked in to facing them is not a good thing.

This is very true, a lot of the big bosses you'll fight will rely on you dashing between their legs and hacking at the backs of their ankles. The lock-on camera will do really screwy things to your orientation when you try to do this. There's also often rewards for hacking tails off of the bosses and the like, which you can't do with the lock-on forcing your view. Fighting normal enemies you'll pretty much always want to have the lock-on active to orient your shield and ranged attacks properly, but with bosses it's more situational.

Another bit of advice that i'll spoiler since he didn't want a step-by-step faq is

that the Taurus Demon seems to be weak to fire, and you can buy fire bombs from the hollow merchant in the undead burg. A few of the early bosses are particularly vulnerable to fire bombs, though their usefulness wanes as the game goes on.

Edit: Something that just occurred to me that it seems like the game never really explains - to kick someone you have to flick the left stick forwards just as you press the attack button, and to do a lunging attack you flick the left stick fowards as you press the heavy attack button. Just in case anyone didn't know. It's a bit tricky at first but, like backstabbing (and I presume parry + riposte, haven't trained myself into that yet), it gets easier with practice.

You also have unique attacks for coming out of sprints, rolls, and backsteps. This on top of right/left wielding and the two-handed stances all having their own moves. (Two-handed stances generally favor vertical swings, something to consider in narrow corridors.) Experiment with your weapons, almost every weapon in the game has a unique moveset.

That basic kick though, that's one of the most important moves you have since you can use it to break through an enemy's guard. (I think it also breaks through parry stances, and is of course a nice safe way to boot enemies off of narrow ledges.)

As for parrying, i believe the ease of that depends on what weapon you're using. I think left-handed daggers give you the widest window for parrying, and standard shields the shortest.

I only had a bit of time last night so I haven't managed to accumulate enough souls for a miracle yet but I did buy a bow as I had no form of long range attack. Shortly after I found a crossbow.

The crossbow is very easy to mix into normal combat, something you can't really do with the bow, but what you can do with the bow is snipe. It's the best tool the game gives you for pulling enemies away from groups, so you can tackle them in more manageable numbers.

I think I've explored as many areas as I can without running into an enemy I can't get past now (Mr. T, dildo knight, black knight and a couple of annoyingly tough skeletons). The black knight seems the easiest of those yet the way he runs at me is terrifying.

It doesn't sound like you looked into the area immediately beneath Firelink, there's a couple narrow stairwells leading to an elevator. Within safe distance you'll find a bunch of non-hostile hollows down there and a blacksmith, but further than that it will become instantly suicidal like many the other possible paths given to you at the start of the game.

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Yeah, I've been caught on the top of the tower before. I was wondering how he'd react to that and... yeah.

I managed to fit 40-odd minutes in when I popped home for lunch today (a benefit of living so close to work). I managed to beat the black knight on my third try. Woo! It took 4 backstabs though and he caught me a few times mid roll. It was an epic fight! I got a nice little present for my troubles too.

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I'll keep in mind the locking tip! Thanks for spoilering the Taurus tips as well. I'll come back and read once I've done him in. I'm intrigued by the chopping of tails though!

The crossbow is very easy to mix into normal combat, something you can't really do with the bow, but what you can do with the bow is snipe. It's the best tool the game gives you for pulling enemies away from groups, so you can tackle them in more manageable numbers.

It doesn't sound like you looked into the area immediately beneath Firelink, there's a couple narrow stairwells leading to an elevator. Within safe distance you'll find a bunch of non-hostile hollows down there and a blacksmith, but further than that it will become instantly suicidal like many the other possible paths given to you at the start of the game.

The bow is an integral part of my survival now but I don't like fighting without my small shield so the crossbow is less useful.

I'll explore a bit more around Firelink. I've been focused mainly at the bonfire up in Undead Burg with beating Mr. Taurus as my goal. A blacksmith would be handy though. Is this elevator past the Miracle man? I had a quick look around there and decided there was a big drop and a dead end. I was also offline at that point so no hints to make me curious.

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I'll explore a bit more around Firelink. I've been focused mainly at the bonfire up in Undead Burg with beating Mr. Taurus as my goal. A blacksmith would be handy though. Is this elevator past the Miracle man? I had a quick look around there and decided there was a big drop and a dead end. I was also offline at that point so no hints to make me curious.

The stairwell to it is actually right next to the bonfire. Head down and you'll find a firekeeper that can upgrade your estus flask if you find firekeeper souls, and then another nearby and also slightly obscured stairwell will take you down to the elevator that takes you beneath Firelink. The blacksmith is then hidden by yet another partially obscured stairwell at a cliff side. You probably don't have any resources you'd need to do anything at the blacksmith, but he also sells a few useful sorceries if you have an intelligence build.

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Oh god, the firekeeper souls upgrade your estus flask? Fuck, I found one of those and used it, assuming it would give me souls. It actually mostly just gave me humanity, most of which I think I pissed away in the aforementioned incident that I shall not speak of.

Also, do you have any idea where the elevator from the church inside the Undead Town goes? The one that was near the huge dude with the mace?

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Oh god, the firekeeper souls upgrade your estus flask? Fuck, I found one of those and used it, assuming it would give me souls. It actually mostly just gave me humanity, most of which I think I pissed away in the aforementioned incident that I shall not speak of.

Yeah, don't use those, they're limited and rare. (I've found... three or four in over sixty hours of playing.) There's a few NPC's scattered around that will use those souls to permanently upgrade the healing potential of your estus flask. Very important.

Also, do you have any idea where the elevator from the church inside the Undead Town goes? The one that was near the huge dude with the mace?

The elevator in the Undead Parish? When you access it from the church side, it creates a permanent shortcut back to Firelink. There's a lot of stuff like that, the environments keep folding back in on themselves, it's very metroidvania.

Random note - The earlier conclusions i made about the message system in the game have proven to be completely incorrect, so Dark Souls continues to be inscrutable. On the other hand, you do in fact get extra estus flasks from people kindling, in their own games, the bonfire you are currently tied to.

Edited October 13, 2011 by Sno

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After watching the Giant Bomb look, I'm very curious for this game and would love to play it! However, I have no internet connection (so a possible demo I wouldn't be able to play) and I don't dare spend 60 Euros just to give it a try. I can see myself loving this game, but also really hating it.

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Yeah, don't use those, they're limited and rare. (I've found... three or four in over sixty hours of playing.) There's a few NPC's scattered around that will use those souls to permanently upgrade the healing potential of your estus flask. Very important.

I want to cry.

The elevator in the Undead Parish? When you access it from the church side, it creates a permanent shortcut back to Firelink. There's a lot of stuff like that, the environments keep folding back in on themselves, it's very metroidvania.

I found that elevator and used it but was too scared to go further so I went back up, then died, dropping my nearly 4k souls, and a little later died again, losing them all.

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I'm hopelessly addicted to this. Adam Jensen has been waiting for me in a brothel in shanghai since Friday, the sucker.

I really like the changes they made, especially the seamless world and the humanity/tendency overhaul. I've had great multiplayer experiences unlike my wretched asian Demon's Souls tribulations. I've even killed an actual invader! (no not an NPC one!)

Edited October 13, 2011 by Raff

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I'm standing outside the white mist that leads to the gargoyles, and I desperately want white phantom backup before I go in, but summoning signs are showing up very rarely, and when they do they fail about 7/8 times.

I don't want to do this alone.

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I'm standing outside the white mist that leads to the gargoyles, and I desperately want white phantom backup before I go in, but summoning signs are showing up very rarely, and when they do they fail about 7/8 times.

I've occasionally had this problem too, i had done some quick searching about it and it seemed to be the typical "the game is way more popular than they anticipated and the servers are being hammered."

It's not an online game, but it is a game that is always online.

I just keep hitting the signs as they appear and eventually they go through.

I don't want to do this alone.

The gargoyles are probably the easiest major boss encounter in the game, i think. (At least, it's the only boss i beat on my first try.)

If you have souls and humanities you're afraid of losing, go level up or buy some stuff from the nearby blacksmith and then kindle that bonfire so you have more estus flasks for the fight.

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Really? I beat the taurus demon on my first try, took me three with this one, and now that I finally beat them it was with both that NPC knight and a real white phantom helping me.

I've left my summoning sign there for a while too so that anyone in my situation can pull me in for some help, but in about half an hour it's only worked once. The servers are definitely either screwed, or there are some very strict requirements on NAT and such for it to work. It doesn't help that actually getting yourself an "open" NAT rating is even harder on the PS3 than on the 360.

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So.... I am already lost and I die a lot. The dying a lot I expected I suppose...

I'm a cleric but I took the master key, and I just took off down a flight of stairs until I met a man with a very large heavy weapon. I figured I'd roll around a lot and get him from behind, but I was taking off a minuscule amount of damage, and then he got me once and.... yeah.

So far, I'm not really sure what to do. The heal spell is handy for saving Estus flasks, and I think the game is only really starting to get going. I think I'm just afraid of facing any boss (or mini-boss) at this stage.

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So.... I am already lost and I die a lot. The dying a lot I expected I suppose...

I'm a cleric but I took the master key, and I just took off down a flight of stairs until I met a man with a very large heavy weapon. I figured I'd roll around a lot and get him from behind, but I was taking off a minuscule amount of damage, and then he got me once and.... yeah.

The master key is opening doors that would otherwise be opened with other keys or from the other side. (It also doesn't open everything, just certain things.) It's basically for sequence breaking, and so you're exploring into areas that are vastly, vastly above your current level.

The gifts really don't matter all that much, none of them are very good. (Some of them have neat one-off hidden purposes, some are just a complete waste.) The master key is probably the most useful, but it's really not even as useful as it sounds like it should be. It is, however, apparently the only starting gift that cannot be found once the game has begun. (Binoculars are literally only a few hundred feet away from the firelink bonfire.)

So far, I'm not really sure what to do. The heal spell is handy for saving Estus flasks, and I think the game is only really starting to get going. I think I'm just afraid of facing any boss (or mini-boss) at this stage.

Realistically, the mini-bosses are a bigger threat than the bosses. It's really, really hard to take the bosses significantly out of sequence, but it's easy to come across... say... a giant hydra that can and will one-hit-kill you. So if something looks dangerous, try to give it a wide berth and move on, come back to it later. (If you're evading everything, you shouldn't be there, and hitting a bonfire will trap you in an extremely unpleasant situation.)

The healing spell is extremely useful, even just as extra healing charges, period. (The spell has a long casting animation though, use it between battles. If you need to heal in a fight, rely on the estus flask.) I don't think faith builds can really focus too much on miracles though, they typically have very limited charges compared to the pyromancies and sorceries, and good miracles are harder to come by. (Only miracles offer healing though.)

So don't neglect your other stats, basically. (At least until you can start forging divine or occult weapons that get stat gains off of your faith, then go nuts.)

Also - Healing miracles are awesome when you're a guest/invader phantom, because as a phantom, you cannot use your estus flask. (If you're a host, keep this in mind. Your estsus flask has an area of effect heal to your summoned phantoms.)

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I'm 2 or 3 bosses from the end of the game, getting pretty excited, although I did something very stupid in a play session earlier today. Set up outside a tough boss, waited about 20 minutes to finally get two human phantoms I needed to take it down, and what do I do? fall off a cliff 5 feet from the boss, and waste mine, and their time spent getting to that point. Man did I feel dumb.

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Oh man, hearing you all progress so much is demoralising! My 5th attempt at the Taurus didn't go too well. It was very close though!

Thanks to Sno's advice I've found some new areas to explore and a better main weapon in the Estoc. It suits my play style quite well and is more powerful than my bandit blade. Goading an attack then dodging backwards followed by a thrust destroys most hollow soldiers straight off.

I still feel I'm lacking in magic which might help get some extra damage on the big guys although the miracles available to me sound a bit pants on closer inspection. I'm going to go stockpile some fire bombs for my next encounter with Mr. T instead. I've been ignoring the obvious options for extra damage here and judging by my last attempt a couple of them would tip the balance.

Oh and I think I would have been better off without that damn master key! I let myself into an Undead Dragon's play area last night.